I was able to visit with Sister Wiedmann at one of our breaks. She was kind and gracious. She told us that when they were delayed from going home to Switzerland for 3 weeks, due to the recent cancellation of flights, that the feeling was awful, as her desires to go home were put on hold. She applied this to the Atonement of Christ, and that we should ponder about not being able to go home after this life. Do we make a connection to Him. His flight plan will take us home. "...where I am you can be also." A 17 year old boy was pondering and asked Heavenly Father why he was so blessed...and the answer came back to him, "Because you are MY SON." We show our Heavenly Father where we want to be through our deeds, desires, and action in the gospel plan. Excellent Talk!

Freiberg Temple entrance where the Angel Moroni is blowing his trumpet for the whole world to Hearken and hear the words of the God.

This is a beautiful temple, "and the work of the Lord will cover the whole earth."

We Love going into the House of The Lord, and coming out knowing the work we have done is being rejoiced over in the Heavens.

These are sheep, not sure what kind. Any suggestions?

The jungers are actually quite cute!

"We are going to the temple! Sister and Elder M; Jungfer; Klee; Kuper; Richter.

We went for a walk on Monday after we arrived in Freiberg, and then on Tuesday spent the day in the temple doing the work for Sister Klee's family. These sisters and a few more are the Relief Society strength of our branch.

We have totally enjoyed the "Mustard Fields" that have grown in every field, valley, and knoll. This is delightful to see and smell. It grows to be about 2 feet tall, and then they harvest it. By the way, they have so many choices of mustard here that you can't go to wrong. The kind of mustard we have at home is not found here. Here they truly know how to make mustard.

The flowers and dandelions all grow together. They love any and all flowers. The lawns are full of dandelions, and when they are cut the people are disappointed. It reminds me of the scripture that the Lord lets the rain fall and the sun shine on all of his creations. Maybe we should re-look at the dandelion.

Sister Richter has quite a history to tell about the years during the war. She had a bomb drop right into their front yard, but it did not explode...She raised her children out of the church because her husband would not come, then when he passed away she came back to church. She has done the temple work for him and they are now sealed.

Sister Klee (r)..is our wonderful sister whom we were able to be "instruments" in re-activating. She loves the gospel, and is now moving ahead with a life of commitment to Christ and His gospel. We will be attending the temple next week to complete her family work, and have her sealed to her parents!

Our sisters "love" Elder Muhlestein. It will be hard to to leave these wonderful people. This is Sister Kuper. She also teaches the R.S. lessons on Sunday, and on Tuesday we have Heim Abend. This lesson is the Old Testament lesson, and she rotates with 2 others sisters for that lesson. Elder M. also teaches on occasion.

We had a wonderful R.S. (FHV) activity by going for a walk in the park on May 1st. This is a Holiday here in Germany, and everyone that can celebrates with a walk or activity. These are a few of our branch sisters, the Elders, and Jessie (11) and Ben (5), and Elder Muhlestein. I'm behind the camera. (whew)

We welcome Elder Kearl and Elder Puriri to our Nordhausen area. We are so grateful that they are prepared warriors, and come here with excitement

and

commitment.

This is Elder Kearl's last

assignment before he is homeward bound.

We said good-bye to Elder Mason, who was transfered. He drew the pictures for us that we have used on flyers for our less-active members. One of "the seed" Alma 32, and another of "the ball or director" that we will be using for placing our trust and faith in the Lord, our Redeemer, and following His path back to our Heavenly Home. The Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage gives us this path.

The following pictures are from a DDR Museum we were able to tour. We were taken back to this time frame, and brought again to the reality of the hardships, pain, and loss of lives during this era. We have a sister in our gemeinde who thinks it was a better time than now! Her thoughts are around the financial hardship of today, where you need to fend for yourself. It seems she would rather be given everything, and let the government control it all. But she is not Jewish and didn't have to fight or hide just to stay alive.

This map is part of the Eastern sector. Nordhausen is just off to the right of the middle of this map where you see a large brown spot. This museum is near where the dark line is (or the past wall) at the top of this map, and extends to the left.

As I signed the guest registry my thoughts were: "Now my name will always be in Germany. I will remember the heartache and the stories of the past. The people who endured this time period here need to be remembered. It also reminds me of how much work there is yet to done in mending hearts, so they will trust once again. The people here are still living on the wings of that war.

This represents the

Grocery/supply store and some of the items they could buy during the DDR. Many of the items where of high quality, but few and far between. The saying goes: "If you see it, and need it, then buy it." That is mainly because it probably would not be re-stocked.

Deutsche Polizei:

...a section of the Deutsche Police. This sign states that this person is the one who is in authority at that section.

Elder Mason got into the act by using a Polizei phone.
We should have dressed him in a Nazi hat and mustache. He makes a better missionary than policeman.

These are some bunkers, and the East-West
wall is just beyond them.

This shows a small workshop behind a home where they would hide food. Sometimes Jewish people would also hide here to escape the inevitable death camps.

This Postal bike, and uniform look very olden
in comparison to the U.S. Postal in the USA.
Today they still use bikes for the mail delivery,
the uniforms have changed.

Living room and kitchen during DDR. Interestingly this living room looks much like they still do today. Don't you love the vacuum hanging on the wall.

They tie colored Easter eggs to the trees using blown out eggs and string. It's a great little activity for the kinder to do, and shows off their talent. These young men however, are not kinder, (children) but they are "our sons" of the Nordhausen Warriors. Elder Mason, and Elder Van den Berghe.

Our newest addition to the branch. Jonathan is one week old. Nein, this is not mine. Evelyn however is doing well, and we can hardly wait for her baptism, and a forever family tied together. They have two other adorable little girls.

We have a wonderful Zone. The sister by me and the sister on the front far left are REALLY sisters. These Elders would be crazy not to look just a "little bit" at the other 4 wonderful sister missionaries as well. Certainly for "future" reference. They are truly "daughters of God."

This is the flyer, and Elder Mason's illustration of Alma 32... You can't see all of the details and colors here, but I love how he depicts a man and a woman caring for the tree, and then partaking of the fruit together. This flyer will be going to all of our less-active members to help them remember that the seed of the gospel needs to be nourished, or it will be scorched with the sun, and die. Thus our testimonies must also be nourished for us to partake of the wonderful blessings and fruit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Since we are unable to get into some of our less-active homes, the inspiration given to me was, then take the "word" to them in another way. We know that the Lord has given this way to us, and now it can be given to them to ponder. Choices---Agency--but oh the joy when your agency is used to receive the fruit of the gospel! "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

Another one of our "sons" Elder Mason, has done some wonderful drawings for us, and is very talented. I was inspired to use his great ability in one of our "flyers" illustrating Alma 32. His drawing of this is shown above. By the way...he also likes my carrot cake!

We have another Elder that came last week to Nordhausen, Elder Van Den Berghe. He and Elder Mason will be companions. His family lives in Holladay, where I grew up, and so we enjoyed the connection. He has already by initiated here. During sacrament meeting today our dear Sister Keuthmann was saying the opening prayer, and fainted. I was near her and held her long enough to prevent a bad fall. The Elders and other Brothers came to her assistance. She is fine but scared all of us. We will enjoy our new "son".

Elder Downing and the two Schopp kinder, Mila and Grace. They loved Elder Downing. He was a major key that the Lord was able to work with, bringing this little family to the gospel. Just this week Evelyn their Mom had their brother, little baby Jonathan. She will now prepare for her baptism time in April. We are excited for this wonderful family to be in our branch.

We had a B-day celebration for Elder Downing. He does love cake! We are sorry to say though that he is leaving the Nordhausen area, and was called to work with the office staff in our transition of missions. We will miss this wonderful "son", which when he returns from his mission, has promised to invite us to his wedding, and also to notify us of all kinder births etc.! We love you Elder Downing!

Brandenburger Tor. This was walled off and was the main division gate between East and West Germany.

These bombed out remains of the Bahnhof train station, are a memorial where 9600 Jewish people were deported through here and loaded into cattle trains. Then taken to a ghetto camp where history shows 1000's died through gas-chambers. I wasn't sure when we arrived what this was, but I was feeling pain, and a quiet reverence here. We stumbled on this through a wrong navigational turn. Then Richard found the memorial posting. Then tears flowed and a surge of hurt, frustration, and then missionary hope, and much work to be done for the posterity of the people that went to their deaths from this station.

The last remains of the Bahnhof Train Station. 9600 Jews were deported through here. These are certainly witness walls.

Over 50,000 were deported from train stations like this in Berlin. Most went to their deaths in Auschwitz

You can see the train with a swastika on the side.

Die Kaiser-Wilhelm I Kirche that was bombed, and only this half remains. Interior pictures are below.

The remains of war torn Die Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis Kirche. In Berlin

This Christus was damaged during the bombing, and only has one arm.

I was able to take this photo, without a flash of course, of a missionar shaking President Uchtdorf's hand before the conference. See the post below for this wonderful moment in time...

We enjoyed a wonderful conference with President Uchtdorf this last weekend. What a thrill for this little group of Berlin Missionare to sit at his feet. We were even privileged to shake his hand. Richard and I got to do that twice! As you can see we are sitting on the aisle at the right, and when he came in he reached over and shook our hands. Then he had all of the missionare stand up, and each of us shook his hand, One by One. His message to us was so encouraging and inspiring. The next day there was a large televised conference that went to 9 different tongues, and several Europeon Countries. We also saw that conference. There he announced that very morning he and some others had gone to a special place, (It was in the Tiergarten Chapel in Berlin) and re-dedicated Germany. He said that no records were on file of all of Germany ever being dedicated, and that President Monson's dedication was done in Dresden, but was not meant for all of Germany. So the "Brethren felt a need", and they went ahead and dedicated it. We feel so blessed to be a part of that now new "official" dedication. Germany is ready and we feel a surge of energy in the missionaries here to move this people forward, and to give them the opportunity anew to accept the gospel. What Joy!

These buggies for the kinder are something to behold. They are larger than this appears. They walk with their kinder everywhere, and so these buggies get a lot of wear and tare. All they need is a gas-pedal. I guess that's the parents job though. Spring-loaded and a place for everything!

Seasons of Nordhausen Germany:

Winter scene out of our apartment window. They present opera/dance/plays/concerts etc. here. We attended Der Nussknacker Ballet in December. This was not professionally done, but we enjoyed the kinder, and they really were quite good! One of the children in our branch preformed in it.

We had a wonderful 42nd anniversary, and this steak dinner was very good. They put cream cheese with dill on the steak. The rottenkohl was yummy as well. They must soak the carrots in some kind of sweet mix. No baked potato option, the meal came as is on the menu. Very tasty and yes a return and eat again.